5. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. (Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington)

6. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while. (Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington)

7. "Oh, Jason, take me!" she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1 a beer night. (Bonnie Speary Devore, Gaithersburg)

8. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. (John Kammer, Herndon)

9. Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. (Barbara Collier, Garrett Park)

10. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. (Susan Reese, Arlington)

11. It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before. (Marian Carlsson, Lexington)

12. The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. (J. F. Knowles, Springfield)